retro-the-best....: [New post] Tom Baker is Doctor Who once more at Big Finish

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

[New post] Tom Baker is Doctor Who once more at Big Finish

Tom Baker is Doctor Who once more at Big Finish

dailypop | March 15, 2011 at 6:05 pm | Tags: doctor who audio adventures, tom baker big finish doctor who | Categories: Big Finish, Doctor Who- 4th Doctor | URL: http://wp.me/p4kUt-2pD

Since 1999, Big Finish has been releasing new Doctor Who adventures featuring several of the cast members from the classic program. Gary Russell and Nicholas Briggs have crafted a thoroughly entertaining world of Doctor Who stories that is strongly influenced by the past program and also established a new run of serials with Eighth Doctor, Paul McGann.

While Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy have reprised their roles as the Doctor, the most popular of the classic Doctor Who actors, Tom Baker, has not. Today, that changes.
Via TARDISnewsroom:

TOM BAKER JOINS BIG FINISH

(15/03/2011)

We're delighted to announce that Tom Baker will be playing the Fourth Doctor in a number of audio adventures for Big Finish, to be released from the beginning of 2012. Storylines and scripts are already at an advanced stage, and we plan to start recording early in the summer.

The first season of six single-disc releases will begin in January 2012, with a second season of seven single-disc releases to follow at a date to be confirmed. There will also be a five-disc box set entitled Doctor Who: The Lost Stories – The Fourth Doctor Box Set... The producers across the Fourth Doctor adventures are Nicholas Briggs and David Richardson.

"As many of you will know, we've been talking to Tom for a long time," says Big Finish executive producer Nick Briggs. "David Richardson and I went to visit Tom at his home not long ago to chat about it all. We had a really great time. At that point, I sincerely felt that had we taken a microphone with us, Tom would have started there and then - but, of course, there are always finer details to sort out. Now that our plans are in place, and Tom has enthusiastically told the world that we're going ahead, we thought it best to follow-up with our own announcement. Rest assured that in the coming months we will be releasing news on this as soon as we are able."

Executive producer Jason Haigh-Ellery says: "I am delighted that Tom will be joining the Big Finish audio adventures of Doctor Who. As a small child, I remember how charismatic and engaging his performance was each Saturday tea time - and we are all looking forward to recreating that era again."

We can confirm that the companions in these productions will be Louise Jameson as Leela and Mary Tamm as Romana, and some familiar monstrous faces from the past will be popping up too.

This week, the complete box set of BBC Audiobooks Demon Quest is available for purchase. While not a Big Finish release, Demon Quest was the first time Baker had acted as the Fourth Doctor. Reviews have been positive for the series, but based on the high quality of the material released so far, I have high hopes regarding the Big Finish projects. More as it comes.